I asked the same question.  My advisor said future tense for now, then you re-write the final draft with past tense.

MELODY

---

From:  "David Ray Golden" <d.r.golden@xxxxxxx>
Reply-To:  comptesol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
To:  comptesol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject:  Three chapters question
Date:  Tue, 03 Jan 2006 11:04:29 -0500
>Hidely-ho, scholarinos!  Long time, no chat.
>
>Happy New Year!  Just to show you how pathetically (at least
>educationally) my new year is starting off, I have a very pedestrian
>question about the first three chapters of the dissertation:  When
>writing the chapter on metholodoly, what tense do you use?  I mean,
>eventually, it's all going to be in past tense (once your study is
>done), but right now all that theoretical work is still to be done
>in the future.  So do you write it "I will" and then go back and
>change EVERY use of verb tense?  Or do you just engage in a little
>creative fiction and write as if you've already done all that work?
>
>Yeah, I know: it's really sad that this is a big issue in my life.
>Clearly, the choices I have made in life that have brought me to
>this point were poor ones.  I should have listened to my high school
>guidance counselor who said the real future was in Betamax repair,
>or possibly I should have further pursued my dream of being the
>second Vanilla Ice.
>
>Later,
>DAVE
>